Chapter 2301: Bringer of Bad Luck (1/2)

While the Larkinsons outside the pirate stronghold began to resist some of the darkness, the interior of Ulimo Citadel began to grow bleaker and bleaker!

The darkness slowly bred some strange grey apparitions. Driven by cruel instructions, these ghosts that took on the form of deceased pirates hunted down every human inside the public marketplace.

The grey ghosts easily managed to fell the many shopkeepers, technicians, administrators and other ordinary workers that called Ulimo Citadel home. While a portion of these native Nyxian residents were armed, their lack of combat training and poor equipment failed to keep them alive for long.

Only the Nyxian residents who banded together or sought shelter from a friendly gang managed to remain alive for some time longer.

However, each person that grouped together also brought their enemies along. The pirates who sheltered the lightly-armored residents out of friendship discovered that their group needed to fend off a lot more grey ghosts than before!

Though there were some odd pirates at Ulimo who possessed uncorrupted hearts, many other pirates straightforwardly ditched their useless baggage.

Anyone who wasn't strong enough to repel the grey ghosts wasn't worth bringing along!

The streets and structures of the public marketplace became filled with dried and lifeless husks. The deaths of thousands of Nyxian residents and pirates underscored the great price that needed to be paid to sustain this dreadful anomaly.

In fact, even the Dry Snakes and other pirates faced attacks as well! The grey ghosts did not possess the ability to discern their opponents. They attacked innocent bystanders, hidden enemies and friendly pirates alike!

Fortunately for the latter, Grand Protector Roshaw always insisted that all of his subordinates be equipped for battle as frequently as possible.

The half-prepared pirates easily fended off the sporadic ghost assaults, though the same could not be said for the subordinate forces of the Dry Snakes.

Much of the Xona Stalkers, Farmund's Own, Rapid Qlinters and the outfits that comprised the Ulimo Militia had been completely caught off-guard!

Though many of these pirates wore armor and carried weapons regardless, much of their support personnel did not, causing them to die unjustly!

In order to keep this powerful move as hidden as possible, Grand Protector Roshaw told no one about the deal he made with the Watchers of the Hallowed Abyss Temple.

Though many allies of the Dry Snakes and the Grand Protector grew furious, the constant attacks by the grey ghosts and the communications blackout prevented them from conveying their discontent.

At the heavily-defended security checkpoint that barred most people on Ulimo from accessing the restricted center area, an intangible cat quietly phased through a wall.

Lucky, clad in his Misfortune Harness, carefully stalked forward. He kept most of his body phased through a solid object, taking care only to peek out his head in order to observe his surroundings.

A lot of large machinery filled the interior of walls. Large power generators, capacitors, regulators and other equipment all made sure that the large turrets placed outside remained in working condition.

What discomforted Lucky somewhat was the large amount of pirates on guard. Armed and armored pirate infantry vigilantly patrolled the interior while technicians and experts constantly kept their eyes on the integrity of the various weapon systems.

Sabotaging these systems without triggering some sort of alarm was impossible. All of the previous targeted sabotage were planned ahead of time. The Black Cats prepared custom hacks and specific suggestions on which components to break or tamper with in order to deactivate a system without exposing to the pirates that anything was amiss.

Since the Black Cats never intended to sabotage these checkpoint defenses, Lucky had to resort to blunter ways to deactivate the deadly turrets.

There was one condition that made it a bit easier for Lucky to do his work without interruption.

The ghosts that assaulted everyone inside the pirate base also plagued the pirates here as well!

The Dry Snake guards were well prepared though. Each technician wore combat armor or at least a protective hazard suit and the abundant number of guards prevented the few ghosts who spawned inside to do any serious harm.

”Careful with where you are shooting!” A foreman warned a couple of guards who just shot a ghost. ”I told you time and time again to watch the direction where you are shooting your guns. You almost shot one of our power connectors!”

”Sorry, boss.”

Between the occasional noises of weapon discharges, Lucky silently phased through the floor until he reached underneath an important power generator.

Having sabotaged many similar models of power generators, the stealthy cat did not need to know the actual design of this device to destroy it from within. His claws briefly phased back into the material realm, allowing them to destroy several important processors!

Alarms immediately began to ring. The power generator kept working as normal as its backup processors and other systems provided some crucial redundancy.

”Meow!”

If destroying one part was not enough, then Lucky would just have to take out the backups as well! He briefly searched around until he finally eliminated the other three critical processors!

Without the processors keeping every system under control, the power generator automatically initiated its emergency shutdown procedure. Unless the pirate technicians replaced one of the broken processors, the device would stay shut!

Though it wouldn't take that much time to get the power generator back to work, Lucky hastily moved on the next important machine. He needed to sabotage as many defenses as possible in a very short amount of time! It didn't matter if the pirates were able to repair some of the damage within an hour, because Ketis and the Mirror Raiders didn't intend to stall so long!

As the last major defensive system went down, some of the pirate guards who shot down yet another annoying grey ghost still remained on high alert!

The ghosts only cared about killing people. They never targeted any machines!

”Wait, what's that?”

”MEOW!”

”Ack!”

An armored pirate officer clenched his neck as a swift energy claw had cut straight through the gorget of his combat armor that shielded his neck! Blood poured from the horizontal cut as the man quickly collapsed.

”We're under attack!”